Imo lawmakers move against Speaker over new deputy gov

The cordial relationship between the Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, Mr. Benjamin Uwajumogu and members of the House may have gone sour following the clearance of Eze Madumere as the new deputy Governor.

The lawmakers, it was gathered, had nominated one of their own to takeover after the impeachment of Jude Agbaso, but were stunned when the governor, in a letter, few minutes after Agbaso was impeached, nominated his Chief of Staff as the new deputy governor.

Although the choice of Madumere did not come to many as a shock, but The Nation findings revealed that the lawmakers had stipulated, among other conditions for impeaching Agbaso, that the position of the deputy governor be given to the House as compensation.

An inside source, who confided in our reporter, said that the lawmaker, particularly the one touted to replace Agbaso, engaged the Speaker in a shouting match after they retired to closed door session few minutes after the impeachment.

According to the source, “the calculation from the beginning had been that the new deputy governor will come from the House as part of conditions to go ahead with the impeachment. But all that permutation was shoved aside and the lawmakers are not happy about that.”

The source also disclosed that the unity and peace that prevailed in the House may no longer obtain when the members return from recess, informing that, “already, majority of the members are no longer happy with the leadership of the House, which they have accused of short changing the members in all negotiations with the executive”.

Meanwhile, efforts to get the house Committee Chairman on Information, Mr. Acho Ihim for his comments, were abortive as his phone rang repeatedly without response.